Our August assignment – Find out what your Senators and House Representative intend to do to get a final VAWA passed THIS YEAR that helps all victims. Then relay their answers to the press and your coalition partners.

ACTION 1: TALK WITH YOUR COMMUNITY ABOUT VAWA AND INVITE YOUR CONGRESS MEMBER TO THE TALK!

Set up a meeting with your local anti-domestic and sexual violence organizations or your book club, or your religious organization (or any other group you belong to!) and invite your Congress Member or a senior staff member to talk to people who see the real impact of this violence on the community. Talk about how important VAWA is and why every victim/survivor needs their support.

Ask the Congress Member or staff person to urge the leaders in both parties in both houses of Congress to quit posturing and get VAWA passed. If the Congress Member can’t make it, use the meeting as an opportunity to talk about the issue with your friends, family and community members and inspire folks to continue to urge their Members to take action for VAWA.

ACTION 2: VISIT THEM IN THEIR DISTRICT OFFICE WHILE THEY ARE HOME!

We all know that passing a VAWA that includes ALL victims is the right thing to do – ask for a meeting to explain why VAWA must get passed this fall before they leave DC (and all bills die and have to be reintroduced in January next year). Invite diverse members from your community to come with you and tell their stories about discrimination and lack of services and outline how a “real” VAWA can help.

Use the August tool kit – with state-by-state tweets – to tweet about VAWA to your Congress Member. Tell them why VAWA is critical to you, your loved ones, family and friends and ask them “What have you done to get a final VAWA passed?” If it’s easier for you to just re-tweet follow @NTFVAWA on Twitter and re-tweet our tweets!

Follow us on twitter at @NTFVAWA and “like” our Facebook page where you can find a toolkit and other action and information items.

Don’t forget to tweet about VAWA using the hashtags #ReauthorizeVAWA, #RealVAWA and #VAWA.

If you aren't on one of the VAWA email lists or want to add members of your staff or state/community leaders to our grassroots alerts e-mailing list, send names and contact information including email to ntfvawaalerts@icasa.org.